


A Harrowing Night

by CashmirSweater



Category: The Locked Tomb Trilogy | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir
Genre: Bad Puns, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Gideon the Ninth Spoilers (Locked Tomb Trilogy), Hurt/Comfort, Light Bondage, My First Smut, Oral Sex, Puns & Word Play, Smut, Teasing, Vaginal Fingering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:08:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27098611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CashmirSweater/pseuds/CashmirSweater
Summary: Harrow and Gideon complete the entropy trial and smut ensues in the morning after
Relationships: Gideon Nav & Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	A Harrowing Night

**Author's Note:**

> Messed with the timeline a bit so that Gideon and Harrow had their pool heart to heart before they completed the lab with Dulcinea so they're both emotionally in a better place when Harrow ends up straight up naked.

Things had been going so well since their little “let’s bare all our secrets and our souls” dip in the training pool. They had been talking almost non-stop since; it felt natural, as if this was the way it always was meant to be. However, in the long walk to meet Dulcinea Septimus again in the eighth laboratory they had settled into an awkward silence.

Before they were within earshot of the room Harrow turned to Gideon with a worried expression the cavalier wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to. 

“You really shouldn’t let anyone do this to you, Nav.”

“I’m not letting anyone, I’m letting _you_ do this to me, oh queen of bones.” Gideon raised her sunglasses and winked for added effect. 

“Promise me you’ll be ok?”

Before Harrow could look at her any more pathetically and before she could second-guess herself Gideon gently lifted her chin and brushed her lips across her necromancer’s in a light kiss. 

“If you want more where that came from, sugar lips, try not to kill me” 

\------------------------------------------

The screaming, it was awful. The entropy field had instantly vaporized everything she was wearing at a molecular level, but hearing Gideon in that much pain tore at her inner being more than any spell ever could. She had to get back and get back _now._

\------------------------------------------

  
  


After what felt like hours of limping along with the barely conscious Gideon, Harrow finally managed to push her way past the bone wards that marked the entrance to the Ninth house chambers. She looked at the pile of blankets Gideon had set up so far away from her own bed— another step and she was going to keel over, Harrow’s own bed would do for now. She slumped and let Gideon's body slide onto the crisp linen sheets as gently as her screaming muscles would allow her. 

“Not going to tuck me in?” Gideon said hoarsely, her voice raw from screaming.

With a literal weight lifted off her shoulders Harrow forced herself to walk over to the bathroom to find a damp washcloth. They had made it back to safety but she was worried about Gideon’s condition. Any normal person should’ve been dead. 

The Reverend Daughter climbed into the bed and knelt next to her brave cavalier as she began to gently wash off the paint on her face.

“I put it on extra thick just for you.” Even in a drunken daze Gideon couldn’t resist cracking a wry smile. 

Normally Harrow would have appreciated the extra effort but right now she needed that paint off to make sure Gideon wasn’t about to accidentally die in her sleep. 

Harrow let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding tight in her chest. Nav’s skin was pallid but the blood was flowing, she was breathing, and had already begun to lightly snore. She felt the adrenaline that had been pumping through her veins for the last hour drain away in an instant; suddenly her eyelids felt so very heavy. The thought that she should sleep in a different bed or put clothes on briefly flickered across her mind but she lacked the will to even acknowledge it. Running on autopilot she ran the washcloth over her own face and removed Gideon’s suddenly too-warm cloak with the last ounce of energy she possessed.

  
  


\------------------------------------------

Gideon felt the warmth of the afternoon sun slowly trickle through the one window that hadn’t been completely blocked off by dark curtains. Whatever her forehead was nuzzled up against felt soft and cozy; she instinctively snuggled in, not yet ready to open her eyes to the world.

“You...you’re alive,” she heard a voice whisper at her ear. Awareness slowly returned to Gideon as she opened her eyes and realized that somehow she was curled up in Harrow’s thin arms, her head nestled into the crook of her necromancer’s neck. 

“Although I guess it would be pretty on-brand for the Ninth House to be snuggling with a corpse.” Gideon looked up at Nonaegismus expecting a reproach out of habit but when she looked into Harrow’s sable eyes she saw a flood of awe and relief. Harrow gently took Gideon’s head in her hands and bent in to kiss the top of her head just below the line of fire-touched hair. 

They held each other’s gaze for a moment, enjoying the warmth of their bodies entwined together. “I know you're not used to being up higher than me, but my lips are down here.” Gideon cocked an eyebrow up at her adept. As if the last dam of emotions between the two had finally broken, Harrow leaned in without hesitation as her lips met Gideon’s own for a slow, deep kiss. 

A warmth flooded through them both and when they finally broke apart they breathlessly stared into each other's eyes. Harrow cocked an eyebrow up, a mirror image of Gideon’s own earlier expression. 

“You know, I don’t think it’s fair that I’m the only one here with no clothes on.”

“Well you never did like to play fair.”

“First time for everything I suppose.” 

Harrow gripped the neck of Gideon’s shirt and greedily stole another kiss

In false resignation Gideon sat up and slowly began to take off her shirt. “I suppose I can level the playing field out of the goodness of my heart.”

While her arms were still above her head from removing her shirt and breast band, Harrow took the opportunity to slide on top of her. She held Gideon’s hands above her head, entwining their fingers. She leaned in and brushed her lips against Gideon’s as she breathed, “You’re right, I don’t play fair.” Two skeletal hands formed around Gideon’s wrists, pinning them to the headboard.

“So does this mean you have a… bone-r for me?” Gideon choked out, trying to pretend she wasn’t both stupefied and delighted.

“Nav, for once in your life please shut up.” 

“Only because you said plea—” Harrow had snuck in another kiss, equal parts passion and impatience, before Gideon was able to finish her quip. 

With their lips intertwined Harrow slowly ran her cool fingers along the ridges of Gideon’s protruding ab muscles, working her way down the lean and muscled torso. Gideon shivered. “You really don’t play fair do you?” 

Harrow’s hand drifted below her navel and she looked at Gideon, suddenly serious. “You’re sure?” 

“Nonaegisimus, for once in your life stop overthinking.” Gideon struggled to rise to meet Harrow’s face and planted a small peck on the bridge of her nose.

A devilish grin spread across the young necromancer’s face as she leaned in next to Gideon’s ear. “You didn’t say please.” 

Gideon was speechless and extremely turned on.

Harrow lightly grazed the side of Gideon’s neck and ran her lips down to the base in a move that elicited a breathless “oh”. Harrow continued kissing her way down Nav’s body, working her way down until she was at the bottom of Nav’s abdomen.

Harrow slowly pulled down Gideon’s briefs, letting her nails gently graze along the skin of her cavalier’s legs.

Pulling against the bones that held her arms in place, Gideon turned her head up to the ceiling. “Fuck, you are the _worst_ tease.”

Harrow planted another tantalizing kiss just above Gideon’s ginger bush “Well, you do have to warm up a Griddle.”

“Marry me, right now.”

Harrow rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but smirk as she ran her hands along the inside of Gideon’s well-muscled thighs. She tenderly ran her tongue along the top of her clitoris. Gideon’s whole body shivered and her hips bucked upwards begging for more. Harrow began in earnest, as if this was the sweetest fruit she had ever tasted and she didn’t want to let a single drop of nectar escape her. 

Gideon’s breathing was heavy as sweat began rippling off her muscles. Harrow drank in the sight of a speechless Gideon Nav before sliding the back of her finger upwards along the ridges of her labia. 

Gideon bit the bottom of her lip and moaned. Her legs reflexively tried to wrap around Harrow, desperate to be able to touch her.

Harrow grinned triumphantly as she gently slid her middle finger into the wetness and began to tenderly stroke Gideon from the inside. 

“H-Harrow…” Gideon’s breathing had become ragged.

Harrow slowly dragged her long finger out, feeling every ridge along the way. She went back a second time, now with two fingers curling together in a beckoning motion while her mouth resumed its liturgy. She continued passionately deeper until Gideon’s breathing hitched and her whole body shuddered in pleasure— and then there was no sound in the room except for their heavy breathing. 

Harrow looked up to see Gideon’s face flush, eyes wide in awe. She climbed back to the top of the bed, herself breathing heavily from more physical exertion than most necromancers are used to. She laid her head down on Gideon’s shoulder and ran a finger down the center of her chest as the skeleton hands disappeared. 

Gideon wrapped her arms around Harrow, holding her close as she buried her face in her raven locks of hair. They lay there together as one drinking in the other’s embrace. As Harrow relaxed and her eyes began to close Gideon asked, “Aren’t you worried you’ll fall a day behind Palamedes my osteo-poriestess?” 

Harrow nuzzled up closer into Gideon’s warm chest “Mmmm I do my best work at night anyways.”

“That’s what she said.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus amazing terrible joke that I couldn't find a way to work in smoothly:  
> -I'm a terrible nun, but I wouldn't mind making a /habit/ out of this *Gideon eyebrow wiggles*


End file.
